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White paper: Music Interventions in Health Care

Chances are that you have listened to music for several hours during the past week. A recent Danish survey found that 76 % of adults between 12 and 70 years listened to music for more than one hour daily (Engagement, 2010). Indeed, music is consistently rated to be among the top ten pleasures that people value the most in life (Rentfrow and Gosling, 2003), but music can do more than just lift your spirit. Throughout the past decade, solid biomedical and psychological evidence is beginning to emerge, demonstrating the beneficial effects of music for a variety of somatic and psychiatric disorders, and for improving general well-being in healthy individuals.In this white paper, we describe the brain mechanisms through which music exerts these effects, and review the evidence concerning music applications for a range of somatic and psychiatric disorders and for improving well-being in healthy individuals. We hope to provide an overview of existing evidence that may facilitate applications of music and the development of novel technologies that can assist music intervention in the healthcare sector in Denmark as well as nternationally.